Tag: entertainment

3DTV is one of the biggest emerging trends in current society, with the format being snapped up by consumers who want the best available viewing experience. But who was it that first came up with what is considered ‘the next-best-thing to being there’?

Despite what seems to be only a recent breakthrough in 3D technology, and an even more recent release into mainstream society, the 3DTV we know today is what could be seen as a current stage in a process which has been in development since the 19th century.

The 3D movie concept has been developing since 1855, and the invention of a Kinematoscope (Stereo Animation Camera), when it was realised that a precise method of overlaying two slightly different images at a flickering speed could create a ‘3D effect’. The forerunner of this effect was English film-maker William Friese-Greene, and it was dubbed as anaglyphic (the approach that does not need a special TV, and is best known for requiring ‘red-cyan’ glasses to view).

The first movie of this method was produced in 1915, before the first public release of a 3D movie in 1922, and the first colour film in 1935. Since then, the anaglyphic approach has made sporadic forays into the limelight between the 1950’s and now, with home releases for anaglyphic versions of films often being sold in the early 2000’s due to the development of the DVD.

However, various electronics companies and film-makers have been developing the new ‘polarized’ approach (requiring the ‘sunglasses’-style glasses) ever since it took off with 2009 hit film Avatar, and since then, films and TV channels in the format have become standardised, and home use of 3D is higher than ever before.

With the technology to mass produce and sell 3DHDTV’s in place since 2010, it is no surprise that all the major global electronics companies set about developing their own boxes to enter the emerging market. Below is a video of the latest plans for advancement – a 3DTV that does not require glasses. Although Toshiba currently have the shortest estimate for the release of a 3D Plasma TV (for 2015), other companies, such as Intel, are showing their current prototypes, as seen here:

coke and mentos did not take off in popular culture until 2006, when two journalists (David Kestenbaum and Michele Norris) released a blog based on it

It is not normally socially acceptable to play with your food, but in the instance of a ‘coke and mentos eruption’, the entertainment value can throw that perception out of the window. Who introduced the world to this bizzare application of science?

Despite the experiment being shown and explained on a TV chat show in 1999 (by physics student Spencer Tyler), ‘coke and mentos‘ did not take off in popular culture until 2006, when two journalists (David Kestenbaum and Michele Norris) released a blog based on it, and within months video sharing websites such as YouTube were packed with new videos of people trying the creation of a carbonate beverage-based explosion for themselves.

After many tried efforts with a variety of mints (or even fruit-flavoured ‘mentos’) and drinks (such as lemonade) in combination, it is regarded that the combination for a big explosion is to use Diet Coke and Original Mint-flavoured Mentos. This ‘formula’ provides the quickest reaction, and therefore the ‘highest’ explosion, with the Guiness World Record height for an explosion measuring at over 9 meters (with the aid of a nozzle). A testament to the popularity of the ‘coke and mentos’ explosions is that some joke shops now sell mentos with the advertised purpose of causing explosions.